The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Azalea plant, botanically known as Rhododendron hybrida, an evergreen greenhouse-forcing type Azalea, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘YBAZ-2504’.
The new Azalea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Alva, Fla. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Azalea varieties having uniform plant habit, profuse and uniform flowering response, dark green foliage, good foliage retention during the cooling and forcing periods, resistance to Cylindrocladium and excellent postproduction longevity.
The new Azalea plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in April, 1997, in Alva, Fla., of the Azalea ‘Sonnet’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,784, as the female, or seed, parent with the Azalea ‘Lavender Lace’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,137, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Azalea was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Alva, Fla. in October, 2000.
Asexual reproduction of the new Azalea plant by terminal cuttings taken in a controlled environment in Alva, Fla. since January, 2001, has shown that the unique features of this new Azalea are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.